


Get It Right

by adiwriting



Series: My Home [7]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Childhood Friends, F/F, Friends to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-03
Packaged: 2019-02-26 13:00:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13236258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adiwriting/pseuds/adiwriting
Summary: "Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right."Oliver and Felicity spend a lot of New Year's together over the years. Sometimes they even manage to get it right.





	1. 2012

**Author's Note:**

> This originally started out as a one-shot for me to post yesterday. It was a story of a NYE past next to their NYE present and how they mirrored each other. However, Felicity had to get involved and mess up the ending where the two stories would connect to each other. And since I loved Felicity's line too much to part with it... Well now you're getting two separate one shots instead with a chance for more. Enjoy! 
> 
> Happy New Years!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place December 31, 2012. A complete timeline of this series can be found here  
> ([Home Verse Timeline](http://archiveofourown.org/works/13304013))

“Tommy’s texting again,” Oliver says, holding up his phone for her to see. 

Tommy is out for the evening with Laurel to celebrate, but Oliver and Felicity opted to stay in. They’re both exhausted from staying up the entire night before in order to stop that weapons deal. However, that’s not the real reason they’ve refused to join Tommy no matter how many times he texts them invitations. The real reason they aren’t going out is because there’s still a hit out on Felicity and they are both too shaken from the incident last week when somebody had managed to get all the way into her home and tranq her before Digg was able to take them out. 

Now, they are a lot more cautious about where they go and when. New Year’s Eve is way too chaotic to take that kind of chance. Too many drunken idiots running around would make it a lot more difficult for Oliver to see a threat coming. Here, at home, he has control over the situation. 

“Tell him I have a boyfriend, now,” she says, her eyes glued to the television screen and the movie they are watching. “I don’t need his help getting laid anymore.” 

“I’m not telling him that,” he grumbles as he tries not to picture Tommy playing wingman for Felicity. She’s gorgeous and Tommy is a smooth talker, he’s sure that Tommy was successful in getting her laid way more times than she’s let on, but he chooses not to think about it. He’s slept with his fair share of women before Felicity, so it would be hypocritical to get annoyed with her. 

Besides, she’s his now. He doesn’t need to get jealous anymore when he has everything he’s ever wanted right in his arms. As these past few weeks have taught him, the only danger to his and Felicity’s relationship is his own stupidity. 

He runs his hands through Felicity’s hair and she hums in delight, nuzzling her face into his thigh, dangerously close to his crotch. He shifts in his seat and she rolls over onto her back to smile up at him knowingly. 

“If you want to make it to midnight, you should stop teasing me.” He glares down at her playfully. 

“You don’t care about midnight,” she says with a raise of her eyebrows. 

“No, but  _ you _ do.”

She’s been talking about it for the last few days — how much she’s looking forwards to being able to kiss him at midnight as the fireworks go off around the city. Oliver’s never been overly fond of New Year’s Eve. The holiday always has so much pressure put upon it that he’s never cared for. However, with how excited she’s been he has to admit that some of that has rubbed off on him. He’s determined to make this year special for her, even if they aren’t going out. 

Part of him wants to make up for the way he’d acted when he’d first found out that she was investigating his mom, but mostly, he wants to make up for all of the New Year’s they should have had together but he was too scared to tell her how he really felt. 

“It’s our first New Year’s together where I’m actually allowed to kiss you like I’ve always wanted,” she says. “I don’t want to miss the chance again and have to wait another year.” 

“Right, because there won’t be  _ any _ other kisses between now and then,” he teases. 

“Maybe not if you keep that up,” she says, playfully pinching his thigh in retaliation. 

“Oww!” He rubs his leg even though it barely hurt and she just rolls her eyes. 

“Like I could ever hurt you, Mr. I-get-shot-and-barely-feel-it,” she says in a deep voice that is clearly supposed to be him. 

“Would you rather me stop in the middle of a fight to cry about it?” he asks, tickling her side. 

She yelps and jumps off the couch away from him, pointing an angry finger at him as he laughs. She’s so adorable when she’s annoyed. He loves teasing her endlessly. It’s one of his favorite things. 

“No,” she says. “But when the fight is over, you could at least let me play doctor.” 

Even though he knows she doesn’t mean it like it sounds, a wave of desire moves through him. He wants her — he  _ always _ wants her — but it’s especially true today when she’s been walking around in his blue dress shirt from yesterday and those tiny sleep shorts she wears to torture him. 

“You can always play doctor,” he says, laying down on the couch and winking at her. Instantly, she blushes as she realizes what she’s just said. 

“You’re incorrigible,” she says, moving back over to the couch to stand over him. He grabs her around the waist and pulls her on top of him in one fluid motion, causing her to yelp in surprise before she settles against him. 

“You’re the one so desperate for me to kiss you tonight,” he argues, rubbing his hand up and down her back. He enjoys the way she shivers at his touch. They’ve been together for two months, but touching her hasn’t gotten old. He’s not sure it ever will. 

“Do we have to wait until midnight?” he asks, bending his legs so he can cradle her body between his knees. 

Felicity smiles down at him knowingly and her eyes are starting to darken. 

“We probably should get in one last orgasm before the new year. We owe it to 2012,” she says before leaning in to give him a positively filthy kiss that sends heat straight to his groin. 

His hands move down to her ass so that he can pull her closer to him until she’s brushing against him right where he wants her. He thrusts up against her, causing them both to moan as she continues to kiss him senseless. Soon, everything disappears except for the feeling of her body moving against him as her hands find the hem of his shirt and pull it off. 

She shimmies down his body and places an open mouth kiss above his heart. 

“I love you,” she whispers like it’s a secret only for them to share. 

Her fingers move up and down his sides softly, sending goosebumps up his body as her tongue begins it’s favorite task: tracing his scars. At first, he’d been hesitant to show her the extent of the damage his time away has done to his body, but now he can’t imagine keeping his scars hidden from her. Every time she kisses over the raised marks all over his skin, he feels like the pain diminishes just the tiniest bit. It’s probably all in his head, but he doesn’t care. He would gladly spend the rest of his life letting her worship him in this way. 

Her hand moves around to the front of his pants and she palms him through his sweatpants, causing him to hiss. 

“Felicity,” he says through gritted teeth. 

She blinks up at him innocently. “Yes?” 

She’s going to be the death of him one of these days, he can just feel it. 

“More.” 

He reaches out and grabs onto her hair as her tongue circles around one of his nipples and her hand sneaks under his waistband to take hold of his length. He thrusts up into her hand as she works him over using just the right amount of grip and speed to bring him to the edge quickly without sending him over. 

“God, yes,” he says as she blows on his wet nipple and a shiver runs through his body. 

He wants more. He needs her. 

“Please,” he cries out and thankfully, she takes pity on him. 

She pulls back and he momentarily whines at the loss of contact until he sees her pulling her shirt over her head to reveal a lacy red bra that he’s never seen before. 

He curses under his breath — or what he thought was under his breath but clearly isn’t if the way she giggles is any indication. 

“You like?” she asks, massaging her own breasts, causing his dick to get even harder if that’s possible. “It’s my New Year’s present to you.” 

He groans as his dick throbs with need for her. She’s so sexy, he can barely stand it. 

“I thought we weren’t doing presents,” he says, even though he has a present for her as well that he’d picked out at the jewelry store a few days ago. He’s been planning on giving it to her at midnight, right after they kiss. 

“Is it a problem?” she asks, standing up to pull her shorts down to reveal the matching bottoms. 

If this were a few years ago, high school Oliver would have already blown his load just looking at her. He’s not ashamed to admit that he’d gotten off to her picture plenty of times back then, but never in even his wildest fantasies, did he ever picture her wearing something quite so sexy. She’s usually too practical for a number like this. 

She likely isn’t kidding when she says she bought it just for him. This isn’t a number she’d wear anywhere else. 

“Oliver?” she says with a playful laugh. 

“Sorry,” he says, shaking his head. “I was trying to remember how to breathe.” 

She bites her lip and looks at the ground as she tries to hide the blush that forms, going all the way to the top of her breasts… Her delicious breasts… 

“God you’re perfect,” he whispers and she looks back up at him with that smile of hers that he loves so much. 

Felicity climbs back onto the couch until she’s straddling him. His hands instantly go to her sides as he caresses her soft skin. 

“So you like?” she asks, clearly fishing for another compliment that he’s all too happy to give her. 

“I love.” 

Oliver sits up on the couch and kisses her deeply as her legs wrap around him and she begins grinding down on him. His hands find their way to the back of her bra, where he discovers the straps and the back are all tied together with a satin bow that feels heavenly against his skin. His mouth moves to suck at the top of her breast while he tugs on the ribbon until it comes undone and her bra falls down far enough to reveal her nipples for him. He pulls one into his mouth as he pulls the bra all the way off and tosses it to the floor. 

She grabs onto his hair and pulls him off of her until he let’s go of her nipple. 

“What?” he pouts. He’d been busy. 

She slips to the floor, moving to her knees beside the couch. He’s about to ask her what she’s doing when her hands go up to his waistband and begin tugging his pants off. He lifts his hips to help her and soon he’s sitting there completely naked with Felicity between his legs. 

There are worse ways to find himself, for sure. 

Her hands wrap around him and start working him over as his head falls back against the couch, too overcome with desire to hold his own weight. 

“Yes,” he cries out as she licks from the base of his cock all the way up to the tip. 

“Didn’t we promise Tommy we wouldn’t have sex on his couch?” he asks. 

He’s not sure why that’s what comes to his mind in this moment. If the way Felicity is staring at him unamused is any indication, she’s not sure either. 

“Did you want to move?” she asks. 

He shakes his head and settles back into the couch, moving his hips closer to the edge so she has easier access. The couch can be cleaned, this orgasm can’t wait. Tommy will understand.

An hour later, once their need has been sated —  _ Twice _ — They lay naked on the couch together. Her head rests against his chest as her fingers trace the scars on his body and his fingers play with her curls. 

This is the feeling of home he’s been searching his entire life for. He hates so desperately that he’d almost screwed this up for himself and lost her. He’d been so stupid to let his anger get the best of him and cloud his judgement with Felicity when it came to his mom. He’d lost over two weeks of time with her. Time he can’t ever get back. He, more than most, knows how precious that kind of time is. He won’t allow himself to make the same mistake again. Not with her. 

“I’m sorry,” he apologizes. 

“You’ve said that,” she says, placing a soft kiss in the center of his Bratva tattoo. 

“I should have believed you about my mom,” he explains anyway.

“You  _ did _ believe me about your mom,” she argues. “That’s why you were so angry. You wanted to stay in denial about it.” 

He shakes his head. He really didn't. He truly thought that his mom was innocent in all of this. He didn’t think she was capable of such evil, but he should have known. His dad pulled Oliver into this mess, is it really that big of a surprise that his mom’s involved as well? 

He’s still struggling to wrap his mind around the revelation that the Gambit had been sabotaged. He’s spent so long jumping at strikes of lightning, terrified of storms and the horror they brought into his life and it turns out, it was never a storm that capsized their ship. Somebody had tried to kill his father, and in the process, destroyed a lot of lives. 

He just wishes he knew what his parents were into, then maybe he could understand it all. There are so many questions, looking back, he would ask his dad. If only he’d realized back then on the life raft that their last moments together were going to be their last moments… 

“I should have believed you,” he says again. 

“Oliver,” she says carefully, like she only does when she thinks he’s about to go off the deep end. “It’s fine.” 

“It’s not,” he argues. “My not listening to you earlier got Walter kidnapped and painted a target on your back.” 

Felicity sits up and grabs his shirt from off the floor and slips it on before standing up. 

“What are you doing?” he asks, reaching out to grab onto her and keep her close, but she’s standing too far away. 

“Getting myself a snack,” she says. “If we’re going to get into this, then I deserve some of Tommy’s special brownies.” 

Oliver eyes her carefully. 

“How special?” he asks, he doesn’t want to judge, but he also knows Tommy. 

“Relax,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “Tommy doesn’t get high anymore. His secret ingredient is Swiss chocolate.” 

He stands up and pulls his sweatpants on and follows her into the kitchen. He grabs two glasses of wine while she gets them each a brownie. He gestures towards the living room, but she sets the plates down on the kitchen table. A clear sign that they are going to actually talk and not fool around anymore. At least, for now. 

Felicity takes a large bite of her brownie and drinks nearly half of her wine in a single sip before setting the glass down at looking at him. 

“The fact that your mom wants me out of the picture because of what I know would have happened with or without you believing me,” she says. 

“It doesn’t mean I have to like it,” he argues. 

“Of course not,” she says. “You think  _ I _ like the fact that I have to have John follow me around all day at work because your mom arranged to have me kidnapped? It’s awful. People already look at me funny because I’m living with the boss’s son and sleeping with tabloid famous Oliver Queen—” 

“Hey,” he says defensively. 

“No, you brought that on yourself when you decided to play up that image,” she says. “I’m just saying… People at work already talk about me. The last thing I needed was to get a private bodyguard. But it is what it is, Oliver. I knew the risk I was taking when I started investigating your mom. So did Walter. We did it because it was the right thing to do. It still is the right thing to do. I’m not going to let her scare me off. We’re going to figure out who she’s working with.” 

He both loves and absolutely hates how brave she is. If she had a touch more self-preservation in her, maybe she wouldn’t be having to look over her shoulder every five minutes. The idea that it’s Felicity and not himself that’s been put on a hit list because of the list terrifies him. There is a reason he regulated her to tech duty and refused to train her for field work and it was to avoid this very situation ever happening. 

“I can’t lose you,” he says. 

She reaches across the table and grabs onto his hand. “You won’t.” 

He nods and let’s himself believe her, even though he’s not sure that’s something she has the power to promise. 

His eyes move to the clock on the wall behind her and he notices the time. 

“Hey,” he says, nodding at the clock. She turns around and when she looks back at him, she has a giant, infectious smile on her face. 

“Twenty minutes til midnight,” she says, practically bouncing in her chair. 

“Go throw something warm on,” he tells her. “We can watch the fireworks from the roof.” 

“Like we used to?” she asks, her eyes glazing over with unshed tears. 

“Like we used to.” 

****

Oliver wraps his arms around Felicity from behind as she leans against the railing and stares up at the stars in anticipation. They can hear the crowd chanting from the bar across the street. 

30 seconds. 

Oliver grabs onto her waist and spins her around so that she’s facing him and continues to press her against the railing, trapping her body against his own. 

25 seconds. 

“It’s going to be a new year,” she says with a giant smile on her face. 

“Is that what’s about to happen? I wasn’t sure.” He chuckles.

She reaches out and rests her gloved hand on his cheek and he leans into her touch, enjoying the warmth. It’s a lot colder out here than he anticipated. 

“Everything bad washes away and we get to start anew,” she whispers. “ _ You _ get to start anew.” 

Her words hit him harder than he expects them to. 

A year ago today, he was in Russia being trained by Talia and though he hoped, he didn’t honestly think he’d see home again. He certainly didn’t think he deserved anything he now has. The darkness inside of him was at an all-time high and it was threatening to overcome him until Talia taught him how to channel it into The Hood.

In the last year, he’s gone to some pretty dark places. Places that even Anatoly and the Bratva couldn’t follow him to. As bright as the last few months have been for him since coming home to Felicity, there was no shortage of darkness.

Felicity caresses his cheek with her thumb and he can feel the touch deep in his soul, doing it’s best to wash away all the trauma of the last five years. He’s not sure if it’s possible, but he likes to think if anyone is capable of it, it would be her. 

“Let it wash away,” she whispers as the crowds below scream out ten seconds left until midnight. 

His eyes water as he’s overcome with emotions that he can’t describe. He’s been home for eleven weeks, but in this moment, he truly feels the deep impact of that for the first time. If he wants to… If he’s strong enough to do so… He can leave it all behind him and truly start anew. 

He shakes his head as the tears start to fall. He really hadn’t planned on crying tonight. He thought that maybe she might. There’s a pair of firework shaped diamond earrings and a matching necklace in his coat pocket that he’d intended on giving her along with some words of his own about fresh beginnings… but he’d meant for the two of them. He hadn’t even considered what the New Year could mean for him personally. 

Felicity wraps her arms around his shoulders and stands up on her tiptoes so that she’s at his level as she whispers their own countdown. 

“Three… Two… One…” 

He leans in and kisses her and lets his lips against hers be a promise that this year, he’ll truly try. That he’ll do everything in his power to put the past behind him and move forward. 

When he pulls away, he whispers, “Happy New Year, Felicity.” 

“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, it will be happier,” she says, causing him to look at her curiously. “That quote always stuck with me for some reason. I love you, Oliver. Happy New Year.” 


	2. 1997

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a lot of pressure over who Oliver is going to kiss at midnight and if tonight is going to be the night he finally makes his move on Felicity... But to do that, he'd have to figure out how to even begin to make a move.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you guys go! The flashback that was originally supposed to be part of the previous chapter until Felicity got involved and totally changed the tone of the last fic. For now, this is it for the NYE fics. But considering they spend many more new year's together, I won't close the chapter on even returning to this one entirely...
> 
> This chapter takes place December 31, 1997. A complete timeline of this series can be found here  
> ([Home Verse Timeline](http://archiveofourown.org/works/13304013))

“Who are you gonna kiss at midnight?” Tommy asks him while they both get ready for the New Year’s Eve party Tommy is throwing since Malcolm is out of town. 

Oliver’s mind instantly goes to Felicity, whom he hasn’t seen all break due to the fact that he’d been spending the holidays in Thailand up until last night. 

“Uh, I don’t know,” Oliver says, scratching the back of his neck as he tries not to turn red. “Why do I have to kiss anyone?” 

“Ollie,” Tommy says with a laugh. “It’s New Year’s Eve.” 

Oliver hates that there’s this unwritten rule that you have to kiss somebody on New Year’s Eve. It’s stupid. He doesn’t want to kiss anyone. 

Or rather, the person he wants to kiss, he can’t. And he has no interest in kissing anyone that isn’t Felicity. 

He might have kissed other girls before, but that’s different. That was for Spin the Bottle and that one time they played Seven Minutes in Heaven at Tiffany’s birthday party. He’s never kissed anyone for real. He’s saving that for someone special. 

“Who are you kissing?” he asks, defensively. 

Tommy shrugs like it’s no big deal. 

“I’m still deciding,” he says. “I was thinking about Hannah.” 

“Hannah Albright?” Oliver says, his eyes going wide. “She’s a freshman!” 

Oliver knows there have been rumors going around school that Tommy’s fooled around with high schoolers, but he didn’t believe them. Tommy is his best friend and he would have told Oliver if he’d hooked up with anyone and he hasn’t. 

Still, the fact that Tommy is thinking of kissing a freshman is pretty impressive. Oliver feels like he can barely talk to girls their own age, let alone older girls. He’s jealous of how cool Tommy is when it comes to this kind of stuff. Tommy doesn’t get nervous or sweat profusely whenever he tries to talk to girls. 

Oliver has known Felicity since they were six and every time he even considers making a move, his tongue grows about five times the size, he can’t say anything coherent, and his entire body starts sweating buckets. It’s humiliating. The other week he’d thought about asking her to dance at his family’s Christmas party and he’d sweat through his entire suit. Felicity thought he had a fever. 

He should ask Tommy to give him lessons. Maybe then he’d be able to ask Felicity out properly like he’s been trying to do since Valentine’s Day last year. 

“It’s just a thought,” Tommy says. “Caroline Miller asked me to kiss her at midnight, but I don’t know.” 

“She’s just trying to make Carter Bowen jealous,” he says as he takes one last glance in the mirror to make sure he’s party ready. 

“I know,” Tommy says. “And while I’m usually all for pissing Carter off, I kind of want my New Year’s kiss to be for me.” 

Oliver nods. He gets that. 

“I figured maybe  _ you _ could kiss Caroline at midnight and I could kiss Hannah,” Tommy says. 

Oliver shakes his head. 

“Why would I kiss Caroline? She wants  _ you _ ,” he says, trying to come up with a valid excuse to say no so that he can spend the evening with Felicity like he plans. 

“She wants anyone,” Tommy says with a roll of his eyes. “She’s just comfortable asking me. I figured you two could both use each other to make your crushes jealous.” 

Oliver doesn’t know about that. He’d taken Tommy’s advice before. He’d spent most of the summer walking around in his bathing suit and talking about McKenna to get Felicity jealous and it hadn’t really worked out for him. 

“I don’t think I’m going to kiss anyone,” he says, leaning against Tommy’s dresser as he waits for Tommy to finish. “I don’t want my first real kiss to be just because of some New Year’s Eve rule.” 

Tommy runs his hands through his hair one last time and fixes his collar before he comes to stand next to him. 

“Dude, you’re so obvious,” he says, patting Oliver on the back sympathetically. “If I orchestrate it so that you two are together at midnight, will you please make a move?” 

“With Caroline?” Oliver asks. “No.” 

“With Felicity, dumbass,” he says, smacking Oliver in the back of his head. “I spent all of 1997 hearing you moon after her like some chick in a romantic comedy. I’m not spending ‘98 doing it.” 

“What if she doesn’t want to kiss me?” Oliver asks, feeling himself start to panic at just the idea that he’d have to make his move tonight. 

He’s not ready. He has no idea what he would say or how he would do it. What if she pushes him away? What if she hates him forever and never talks to him again? 

“I’m pretty sure that won’t be an issue,” Tommy says. “But even if it is, that’s the magic of New Year’s. Just blame it on the holiday and pretend it didn’t mean anything.” 

Blame it on the holiday. 

Oliver considers that thought carefully. Is it possible that he could use New Year’s Eve as an excuse to kiss Felicity? He’s not sure. What if she thinks he only kissed her because he had to? Then he’d have to explain he likes her and that involves words. 

As he’s come to learn: he’s not good with words. 

“Why don’t you worry more about how you’re gonna convince a freshman to kiss you and stay out of my love life?” Oliver shoves Tommy off and moves towards the door. The music has been pumping for a solid half hour. They really should get to the party, considering Tommy is the host. 

“I can multitask,” he says with a smirk. “And I don’t think it’ll be that hard to convince Hannah to kiss me. I heard her asking her sister about me at the Merlyn Global holiday party last week.” 

Oliver rolls his eyes. It’s not really fair. Tommy is twelve and looks like he’s fifteen already. Meanwhile, Oliver isn’t sure puberty is ever going to hit him. 

They walk down the stairs and Tommy goes straight for the bar to grab a beer. Oliver decides to stick with water for now until he figures out if Felicity is going to be drinking tonight or not. He doesn’t want to get sloppy in front of her if she’s going to be sober.

“Hey you,” McKenna says, coming up to wrap her arms around him from behind. “I missed you at my party last week.” 

“Yeah, sorry,” he says, pulling out of her embrace and glancing around to see if Felicity has arrived. He doesn’t see her yet. “My family was away.” 

“In Thailand, I know. Tommy told me,” McKenna says with a playful pout. 

Oliver feels bad. He likes McKenna. He truly does. She’s smart, funny, and pretty. Best of all is that she’s chill. She doesn’t get weirdly clingy like some of the girls at his school get. Maybe it’s because she goes to public school and the girls are different over there. 

Either way, he wants to like her more than he does. Especially since she so obviously likes him. His life would be easier if he could get over Felicity and date McKenna instead. But he can’t. His heart was stolen away at the age of six and he doesn’t think there’s any hope of ever getting it back.

“You’d like it,” he says. “Beaches for days.” 

“Well not all of us can be jet setters, spending our holidays in exotic locations,” McKenna teases him. “Some of us live in the real world.” 

“Must you always bust my balls?” he grumbles as she laughs loudly. 

With her head thrown back, he’s able to admire her neck. He blushes as he remembers how soft it felt under his hand when he’d kissed her playing Spin The Bottle over the summer. It had been a good first kiss. He wonders if kissing Felicity would be as nice, or if he’d be so sweaty and nervous that he’d ruin it. 

Tommy walks past him and pats him on the back. 

“Hey McKenna, thanks for coming,” he greets her before whispering in Oliver’s ear, “You could always kiss her.” 

Oliver shrugs him off and shoves him out of the way. 

“Go away,” Oliver says as Tommy walks away wagging his eyebrows suggestively. He doesn’t need or want Tommy playing cupid for him. He’s got a plan for midnight: Felicity. 

And if he’s really lucky, he may even build up the courage to kiss her. 

“He’s an ass, ignore anything he says.” 

“I usually do.” McKenna laughs. 

Just over his shoulder, he spots Felicity walking through the door and smiles.  

“You drinking?” McKenna asks. She gestures at the bar and he shakes his head. 

“You start, I’ll catch up later,” he says, his eyes trained on Felicity as she takes off her coat and hands it to the maid. 

McKenna glances over to see Felicity and smiles at him in understanding. She reaches out to squeeze his arm. 

“You’re a good guy, Oliver. She knows that,” she says. “Tell her how you feel before it’s too late.” 

Oliver’s eyes widen as he realizes that he’s been caught. He’s never told McKenna how he feels about Felicity, he’s not sure how she’s figured it out. 

“I… uh… I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

McKenna shakes her head and chuckles. She doesn’t seem upset with him, which is good. It’s one of the reasons he likes her so much. She’s low maintenance. 

“Take a deep breath and just tell her,” she says, starting to back away as Felicity approaches. “Like ripping off a bandaid.” 

Sure, Oliver thinks. If ripping off a bandaid had the potential to be eternally humiliating and destroy his most important friendship. 

McKenna gives him one last thumbs up before turning away from him to grab a drink from the bar. 

Felicity is making her way over to them quickly with a determined look on her face. Oliver takes a steadying breath, telling himself to play it cool. It’s just Felicity. He’s known her more than half of his life, there’s no reason to be nervous. 

She’s really pretty today. Her hair has been left down in the soft, slightly frizzy, curls that he loves. She’s not wearing her glasses, which means he can see her warm, kind eyes that much better. She’s wearing a skirt, tights, and an adorably large sweater. She’s simply breathtaking. 

The second she’s within reach, she throws herself at him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and nearly knocking him over. 

“Thank god you’re back!” she says dramatically. 

He wraps his arms around her waist and holds her to him tight, silently begging her not to pull away. Not until he’s had a chance to really hold her and center himself. He nuzzles his nose into her shoulder and takes a long breath. She smells of laundry detergent, lavender, and cigarettes. Clearly, she’s spent the day at work with her mom. But he’s not complaining. He takes another deep breath. With her scent filling his lungs, her arms around his body, and her breath against his ear… It’s like his world has been off balance all week and suddenly it slams back into place. 

“I’ve missed you,” he whispers so that only she can hear him. “I’m never leaving again.” 

Felicity giggles and the sound warms his heart. She unwraps her arms from him and pulls out of his embrace, but doesn’t move away from him. She’s a good head shorter than him, but that doesn’t put her far enough away. The way she’s looking up at him, he wants nothing more than to close the small distance between them and kiss her. 

“Good,” she says. “I hate it when you leave.” 

He smiles. He’s sure he looks like an idiot, but he can’t help himself. She just makes him so happy. Felicity looks at him expectantly, but he can’t find any words to say that don’t start with ‘You’re beautiful’ and end with ‘Be mine.’ 

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asks, taking a step back from him and pulling on her skirt self-consciously. 

The distance helps the air return to his lungs as the world around them seeps into their bubble. He remembers where they are and who they are. Felicity is his best friend, not his girlfriend. 

“You look nice,” he says to get her to stop pulling on her skirt. 

“Don’t tease me,” she says, her hands going up to rub at her lips. “My mom made me wear makeup when I told her I was going to a party. I look like a clown.” 

Oliver laughs, because he can totally picture Donna wrestling Felicity to the ground to get makeup on her. Felicity doesn’t like to put a lot of time into her appearance. She thinks that makeup makes girls appear too pretty and delicate and she’d rather be called smart and strong. Oliver thinks, even without makeup, she’s both pretty and smart, but he’s not brave enough to tell her that. Whenever he tries to tell her he thinks she’s gorgeous, she assumes he’s teasing her. 

“You don’t,” he says, smacking her hand away before she can smear her lipstick all over her face. He steps over to one of the snack tables and grabs a napkin and hands it to her instead.

“Thanks,” she says, wiping the remaining lipstick off of her face. She then shoves the dirty napkin back in her purse instead of handing it off to one of the many staff walking past and looks up at him excitedly. “So tell me all about Thailand.”

Oliver shrugs. “Nothing much to tell,” he says. “My parents didn’t let me do anything fun.” 

“Somehow, I doubt that’s true,” she says and he has to lean in closer to hear her over the crowd of high schoolers that have just walked into the party yelling about some drinking game. 

She grabs onto his hand and gestures to the corner of the room where it seems quieter and he nods. She leads them over to the sofa that’s been pushed to the corner and they sit down next to each other. She curls her feet under her and leans in close to him as he rests his arm on the back of the couch behind her, creating their own private little world. 

“You always say that, but then I later find out you rode a dolphin or went to the Colosseum or something,” she says. “Tell me what you did.” 

“Well first of all, everyone fell at Thea’s feet,” Oliver says, rolling his eyes like he’s annoyed even though he’s not. He absolutely adores his baby sister. 

“Well who wouldn’t?” Felicity says. “Your sister is adorable.” 

“And apparently all of Thailand thought so,” he says. “I guess they don’t get a lot of foreigners on the island we stayed on, and foreign children were even more rare. So pretty much everywhere we went, people wanted to say hi and talk to her.” 

“Was she okay with that?” she asks, concerned. 

“It’s nicer than the kind of attention we get from paparazzi whenever we visit New York or LA,” he says with a shrug. “So she was fine.” 

Felicity gives him a weird look before shrugging it off. 

“What?” he asks. 

“Nothing. It’s just… sometimes I forgot that you guys are kind of like celebrities,” she says. 

“ _ We _ aren’t,” Oliver says. “My parents are, but that’s only because they have so much money. People have a fascination with the rich. They’re just curious about what our lives are like.” 

“Well I can tell them that,” Felicity says. “ _ Insane _ . What two year old goes to Thailand?” 

Oliver shrugs, feeling defensive all of a sudden. He knows that Felicity doesn’t care about his money, but there are times that he gets the impression that she can’t stand it. He imagines that it’s got to be hard to be from the Glades and go to Starling Prep. Donna currently works two full-time jobs and Felicity’s still on the free lunch program a school. But he can’t help that. He’s tried to give Felicity and Donna money, but neither of them will take it. 

“What about you?” he asks, changing the subject quickly. “What did you do while I was gone?” 

“Well our pipes froze,” Felicity says. “So that was fun.” 

“What happens when your pipes freeze?” he asks, feeling like an idiot for even having to, but it’s not like he has to worry about that kind of stuff. They have staff that take care of problems around the house. 

“You can’t get water,” she explains. He looks at her confused and she takes it as her cue to continue explaining. “Our neighbor couldn’t pay their heating bill so they’ve been going without heat this past week. And since we all share the same water lines, their frozen pipes meant no one in the building could get water. Mr. Shelley’s pipes burst downstairs and flooded his apartment, so it could have been worse. At least our apartment didn’t flood, we just couldn’t shower, brush our teeth, or cook for several hours while we waited on a repairman to fix the busted pipes.” 

Oliver sometimes hears these stories of Felicity’s and wonders how anybody can live like that. He doesn’t understand how the government allows it to happen. He believes there should be programs in place for families like the ones in the Glades so that they don’t have to worry about things like losing heat or frozen pipes. He’s said as much to his parents before, thinking that they could talk to their politician friends, but apparently such thoughts are for socialists. Oliver isn’t entirely sure what that means, but he thinks he heard somewhere that the Nazis were socialists so it must be bad. 

“You have water now though?” he clarifies. 

“Yeah,” she says with a shrug like it’s no big deal when it is. 

Oliver can’t imagine a world where his family would ever have to go without water, even for a few hours. On the rare occasion something did ever happen to their pipes, they would just send somebody out for water, he’s sure. Or they’d go stay at the penthouse condo his family keeps downtown. 

“I wish you could move to a nicer house,” he says. “I could buy you one where the pipes would never freeze.” 

Felicity rolls her eyes. “You’re not buying me a house.” 

Yeah, he didn’t think she’d go for that, but he figured he’d try. One of these days, she might take him up on his offer. 

“I bought you a Christmas gift,” he says. “It’s at my house. I’ll bring it over to your place tomorrow. Or you can come over and get it.” 

“I’m Jewish,” she says, like that’s news to him. 

“Right, but you banned me from getting Hanukkah gifts, so you get Christmas ones instead,” he argues. 

“I banned you from Hanukkah gifts because you were buying me eight gifts, and they weren’t affordable ones,” she says. “Why do you have to get me anything, anyways?” 

Oliver looks at her like she’s crazy. 

“You’re supposed to give gifts to the people you love,” he says without thinking. It takes him a moment and a surprised look from Felicity to realize exactly what he’s just admitted on accident. 

“I mean all the people you care about,” he clarifies. 

“Right,” she says with a laugh. God, she must be relieved, that doesn’t bode well for him. “Because we’re friends.” 

“Best friends,” he says with a nod, hoping to completely remove any doubt in her mind that is what he’d meant in the first place. 

Felicity reaches out to put her hand on his knee and it sends a spark through his body. He takes a deep breath, trying to relax. 

“I’m really glad that you’re back,” she says, smiling up at him. 

“Me too,” he says. 

Her eyes sparkle under the party lights Tommy has going and he’s reminded of just how beautiful she really is. If she pulled her head out of her books for more than five seconds for everyone else to see her beauty, she’d bring every boy at school to their knees. She’s perfect. It’s really a wonder she’s even friends with him, he can’t blame her for not wanting something more. The only thing he has to offer her is money and she has no interest in it. 

She shifts her weight and settles herself against him, using his shoulder as a pillow. They’ve always been affectionate friends, but over the last year, it’s grown more difficult for him to equate her little touches and cuddles with friendship. He’s a teenage boy with lots of hormones. Whenever she does stuff like this, his body feels like it’s on fire and he’s in danger of getting too excited. He tells himself repeatedly that she only means it in a friendly way, but his body doesn’t care. It wants more. 

He takes a chance and reaches out to run his fingers through her hair and she hums in pleasure, so he keeps doing it. 

The two of them watch the party going on in front of them, occasionally commenting on their classmates’ behavior. Oliver should really stand up and pull her out on the dance floor. She’s always such a wallflower and he usually makes it his mission to get her out of her shell. But tonight, he’s okay ignoring the party entirely and staying in their own little world. 

Felicity reaches out to grab his watch and look at the time. There are 45 minutes until the new year. 

“Have you decided who you’re kissing at midnight?” Felicity asks him. 

“You too?” he asks, looking down at her. “Tommy was harassing me about it earlier.” 

“I just figured you were going to try and kiss McKenna,” she says. 

He shakes his head, even though she can’t see him. 

“I wasn’t planning on it,” he says. “Why? Who are you kissing?” 

Instantly, he’s on high alert and scanning the room for potential targets. If she says Alex, he’s going to break his nose again. 

“Nobody’s interested in kissing me,” she says with a laugh. 

“You’d be surprised,” he mumbles as his brain screams at him to make his move. This is his chance to speak up but he won’t. Not after his slip up before and the look of relief on her face when he clarified that they were only friends. 

“I’m pretty sure nobody will be kissing me ever again after what happened with Alex,” she says, pinching his thigh. 

“Oww!” Oliver says, smacking her hand away from him before she can hurt him again. “That jerk deserved it. He was all over you.” 

A panic hits him as he registers her annoyed tone. 

“Why, don’t tell me that you liked it,” he says. 

Felicity scoffs. “I don’t like Alex.” 

“Then what’s the problem?” he grumbles. “You should be thanking me.” 

“I’m not going to thank you for breaking a guy’s nose for kissing me,” Felicity says. “I can take care of myself.” 

“Whatever,” he says, sinking further into the couch. 

The two of them go back to watching the party in silence. Oliver watches at their classmates start to couple off one by one. Apparently everyone else has an easy time figuring out how to make their move. Oliver doesn’t understand why it has to be so hard for him. Why did he have to fall in love with a girl who has zero interest in him? He could be dancing with McKenna right now and having a grand time. Instead, he’s sitting on this couch like some lovesick loser, praying that Felicity will suddenly see him as more than her overprotective best friend. 

He’s tried to get over his crush on Felicity. He really has. But every time he thinks it might be possible, she goes and does something that makes him fall in love with her even more. He’s a lost cause. 

“Is Tommy talking to Hannah Albright?” Felicity asks. 

“He thinks he’s going to convince her to kiss him at midnight,” he explains with a laugh, like it’s the craziest thing he’s ever heard. 

“He probably will,” Felicity says without a hint of shock. “I heard some of the high school girls in my building talking. I guess Tommy’s getting a reputation as being — what was the world they used? Generous.” 

She laughs at the word in amusement but he thinks it’s insane. He doesn’t understand how Tommy got this reputation or why people keep spreading these rumors around. 

“That’s a load of shit,” Oliver says. 

“Are you sure about that?” she asks, gesturing to where Hannah has taken Tommy’s hand and is pulling him out to the dance floor. 

“Tommy would have told me if he fooled around with any high school girls,” he says, defensively, even though he’s growing less and less sure of that fact every time he has to tell it to himself. 

“Is he usually one to kiss and tell?” she asks. 

Oliver is about to say yes, but as he searches his mind for the last time Tommy told him about a girl he’d kissed, he realizes he can’t remember one. He can name multiple times that Tommy’s talked about girls he has crushes on or people he thinks are pretty. He can distinctly hear Tommy’s voice telling him that he should let a girl get to third base with him, that he’d enjoy it. However, now that he’s thinking back to all of the conversations he’s ever had with Tommy, he can’t remember Tommy telling him about a single girl he’s been with apart from his very first, awkward kiss. 

“I guess not,” he says, suddenly feeling unsure. Why  _ is _ Tommy being so stingy on the details if it’s clear to everyone that sees him with the girls that there are most certainly details to tell? 

“It’s like they say, he’s a gentleman,” Felicity says. 

“Yeah, but gentleman or not, you still tell your best friend all of that stuff,” he argues. 

“Really? If you and I fooled around tonight, you’d immediately go and tell Tommy all the details?” she asks and the question causes him to double take so hard that he may have actually injured his neck turning his head so fast. 

“What?” he asks. His heart is literally pounding so hard that he can hear it beating in his ears. 

Felicity looks flustered as her mouth opens and closes several times before she finally says, “Are you thirsty? I’m going to go grab us some drinks.” 

She stands up and looks at him expectantly, but he’s still trying to process what in the hell just happened. Had Felicity honestly just asked him if he would tell Tommy if they fooled around? Is that something she’d even want? He knows Avery and Vanessa have been fooling around for practice… Is that what Felicity wants from him? Does she want them to hook up so that she knows what to do when she gets a boyfriend? 

He doesn’t even let himself consider the other option… that she actually likes him. That’s too dangerous of a path to go down and so completely unlikely. As it is, thinking about being practice buddies… Or what’s the term that Avery used for Vanessa? Trial girlfriend? It’s an awful idea. He’ll fall in love even deeper and she’ll move on and get herself a real boyfriend. Some sleazeball who will benefit from whatever sexy moves he helps Felicity learn. She’ll be thrilled and he’ll be worse off than he is now, because he’ll understand exactly what he’s missing out on. 

“Oliver?” she says, waving her hand in front of his face. 

“Huh?” 

“Drink?” she asks. 

He shakes his head and she goes off towards the bar. 

What the hell? 

Oliver lets himself picture it for a moment. What if he did say yes — and that’s a big what if, because he’s not even sure that’s what she’d meant to say… 

Oliver closes his eyes as he imagines Felicity kissing him. Her lips would be so soft. Her fingers would rub up and down his chest as they awkwardly laid down on the bed. He’d do his best to keep his hips away from hers, but eventually, they would accidentally touch and he’d nearly come in his pants. 

Just how far would this go? When Felicity said fooling around, did she mean making out, or would clothes be coming off as hands explore?  

Oliver’s pants grow uncomfortably tight as he pictures himself touching Felicity under her shirt. He puts his hands in his lap and crosses his legs, hoping that nobody can see how hard he is all of a sudden. 

Damn him and his overactive imagination. He should have known better than to let his mind go down that path. His heart jumps to his throat and the room starts to spin as he think about how he’s going to let Felicity down gently. He doesn’t want to hurt her feelings, but he also can’t be her trial boyfriend. As nice as it would be to get to be with her even momentarily, it’s not worth the heartbreak it would cause. There is no way Oliver would be able to let her go when the time came and it would destroy their friendship. 

Oliver needs Felicity as a friend way more than he needs her as a girlfriend. 

She comes back over carrying a bottle of champagne that has him nervous. At this point, he’s pretty sure she really does intend for them to fool around tonight if she’s trying to build up some liquid courage. 

“It’s loud in here,” she says with an adorable grimace. She bites her bottom lip like she’s contemplating something and he shifts uncomfortably in his seat. She’s so sexy without even trying to be. She’s going to be the death of him. “Wanna go downstairs and play video games?” 

He does. He really,  _ really _ does. A wave of want goes through him as he pictures the two of them alone in the dark, secluded basement. So many soft surfaces to make out on. His pants grow tighter and he shakes his head. There’s absolutely zero way he’ll have any kind of resolve in a situation like that. 

He stands up and yanks the bottle from her hands, before she can drink any more of it. A drunk Felicity is a handsy Felicity and that’s a recipe for disaster. 

“Let’s go up to the roof,” he says instead. 

There, it’ll still be quiet, but with the freezing cold weather, it’ll be difficult to stay hard and he doubts she’ll be in any kind of mood to do anything that could fall under the umbrella of ‘fooling around.’ It’s a less sexy alternative to the basement. 

****

“I think my lips are turning blue. How long til midnight?” Felicity asks as she pulls the blanket wrapped around her tighter and leans back against the roof to look at the stars. 

Oliver looks at his watch. It’s 11:58. 

“Two minutes,” he says, leaning back against the roof as well to stare up at the sky. 

It’s not as easy to see the stars from Tommy’s place as it is from his own. The Merlyn’s are closer to the city, so the lights and smog tend to drown them out, but they’re still there. There aren’t as many as from his backyard, but they’re there. 

“Do you ever think that somewhere out there is a whole other planet with life of its own? And that they’re out there staring up at the same stars wondering about us?” she asks, making him wonder how drunk she is. She only had a few sips of the champagne. He’d accidentally-on-purpose dropped it when they’d climbed out here so that she wouldn’t get too tipsy. 

“Uh… I guess,” he says with a shrug. He’s never really thought about it. 

“I sometimes wish I could jump on a spaceship and just go somewhere else,” she confesses. 

It’s not the first time she’s said something like this to him before. Their shared desire to grow up and leave their lives behind is one of the reasons why they are such good friends. 

“When I turn thirty, I could buy us a rocketship,” he says. 

“Why do we have to wait until you’re thirty?” she asks, rolling over so that she’s on her stomach and looking down at him. 

“My trust fund would need to kick in,” he says. “My parents wouldn’t give me enough money to get a rocketship.” 

“They like you on Earth too much,” she says with a smile. “It’s okay. If we’re stuck on Earth for several more years, at least we have each other, right?” 

“Yeah,” he agrees. 

She cuddles in close to him and rests her head on his shoulder as the crowd belong begins to count down. He closes his eyes and runs his fingers through her hair as he lets himself imagine, just for a second, that she’s his girlfriend and that there won’t ever come a day where she isn’t by his side. It’s a beautiful thought, even if it’s an impossible one. 

He opens his eyes and stares up at the sky in anticipation of the fireworks that are to come. Felicity’s favorite thing to do is watch fireworks. Oliver enjoys the way that her eyes light up and the sparks get reflected in her eyes. They’ve spent the last several Fourth of Julys together and it’s always a special moment getting to watch the fireworks show with her. 

He’s glad that he had the thought to come up onto the roof so that nobody has to see him staring at her like a lovesick idiot as she watches the show. 

“Five,” she begins to count down and he joins her. “Four.” 

She looks away from the sky to look into his eyes. “Three.” 

Oliver’s breath catches in his throat as he has a fleeting thought of just going for it, of leaning in and kissing her properly. After all, Tommy said he could blame it on the holiday. 

“Two.” 

She smiles at him brightly and just like always, all the worries of the world melt away and he’s reminded of one undying truth: Everything will be okay so long as he has her by his side. 

“One.” 

Oliver licks his lips and is about to go for it. The fireworks begin going off overhead, but she doesn't look away. Instead she leans in and just as he’s about to kiss her, she kisses him instead…. Only, not on the lips, like he’d been planning. She kisses him on the cheek. 

Just like that, the moment is gone. He’s glad that he didn’t make a move. This is better, he tells himself. 

“Happy New Year, Oliver,” she tells him. 

“Happy New Year, Felicity.” 

She turns to watch the fireworks, but his eyes never leave her. 

Yeah, he thinks with a sigh. He doesn’t know the first thing about making a move on a girl. He would have screwed up the kiss somehow and ruined everything. 

This is better.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for your continued love and support of me and this verse!


End file.
